Trump's federal budget would eliminate dozens of agencies and programs

President Trump's proposed budget takes a cleaver to domestic programs, with many agencies taking percentage spending cuts in the double digits.

Author:
WUSA Staff

Published:
10:00 AM EDT March 16, 2017

Updated:
10:00 AM EDT March 16, 2017

President Trump's proposed budget takes a cleaver to domestic programs, with many agencies taking percentage spending cuts in the double digits.

But for dozens of smaller agencies and programs, the cut is 100%.

Community development block grants. The Weatherization Assistance Program. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The National Endowment for the Arts. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting. All would be axed if Congress adopts Trump's budget.

Also proposed for elimination are lesser-known bureaucracies like the McGovern-Dole International Food for Education Program, the Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program and the Inter-American Foundation.

Many of those programs have constituencies in states and cities across the country — and their champions in Congress. "The president's beholden to nobody but the people who elected him, and yes, I understand that every lawmaker over there has pet projects," said Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney. "That's the nature of the beast."

He said not every program would disappear overnight. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which now receives $485 million a year, might still get some federal funding in 2018, for example. "It might take a while to unwind that relationship. It’s just the nature of contracts," Mulvaney said.

Trump's budget says hundreds of programs and agencies would be eliminated — with more than 50 in the Environmental Protection Agency. But his first budget proposal identified 62 specifically. The list: